I always ask: how might things be both better and different?

My background is as a transport planner, but my focus over recent years has expanded to encompass a broad range of issues related to development and transformation of the built environment.

I’m really interested in urban systems and the people and communities that inhabit them and what I, as a planner and designer, can do to influence the way those systems operate and develop.

How do we best drive action in those contested areas of urban systems beyond the control of any single organisation? What role do communities play within those systems? How can the power and energy of communities be harnessed to influence city systems?

My ambition is to make a difference in helping transform our places, spaces and cities and the organisations that serve them, so the way they work gives them a chance to flourish in the challenging times ahead.”

Andrew Wisdom

Career Snapshot

After graduating as a civil engineer and transport planner, Andrew enjoyed a long career working around the world at design firm Arup. He moved to New York in 1999 to establish Arup’s transport planning practice in that region. On his return to Australia in 2005, he acted as the firm’s Melbourne office leader and its Melbourne infrastructure practice leader. He then took on the challenge of establishing an Australia-wide planning practice for Arup and acted as its Cities leader.

Throughout his time at Arup he worked on and led important and substantial infrastructure projects around Australia, the US and UK, as well as in locations as diverse as Singapore, Hong Kong, Papua New Guinea, Brunei and South Korea. Active in the built environment community, Andrew was a member of the Victorian Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability’s Strategic Perspectives Think Tank (2012-13), was a member of the UN Global Compact Cities Advisory Council (2008-2012) and is an associate editor of Roads and Transport Researh.

Since leaving Arup, Andrew has continued his practice as a transport planner, and has consulted on business strategy and as a workshop facilitator. He is also a director of EAgri, a start-up with a mission to develop and deliver a vertical hydroponics system capable of producing reliably clean, leafy green vegetables into China’s burgeoning urban areas.